Exclude shipping for specific product

[grant]

Hi All,

I know this has been discussed many times - and the answer seems to have always been that you can only use the exclude item from shipping calculation IF, and only IF you are using weight based shipping. If using any other form of shipping you are not able to offer free shipping for a specific item.

But, has anyone in more recent years found or devised a way for a user to be able to offer free shipping on an item if the software is not set to weight based?

Would be a great help if so, as we have a client that ships by zone/value, but they really want to be able to offer this without changing 5000 or so products.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Cheers

Grant

[leehack]

Select the 'details' tab on the product and you can customise shipping specific to that product.

[grant]

Hi Leehack

Many thanks for helping me out with this!

Ermm. On the Details Tab - in the Shipping details..

The options available are
Shipping supplement
Handling Supplement
Exclude from Shipping band calculation, shipping category
Weight and Alt Weight

The "Exclude from shipping band calculation" which is what I would have thought would work, does not, as this client's shipping is done via value, so it ignores that Exclude setting.

Do you mean that if I check Shipping Supplement and set that at £0 then it will ignore the usual value based rules and charge just £0 ?

Cheers for any nudges in the right direction

[leehack]

Sorry Grant i missed your based on value comment. Why not create a shipping category called 'no charge' and select that category for that product or any other you want free shipping on? Would that work? Create the category in business settings and then select it on the details tab previously mentioned.

[grant]

Hi Lee,

Hmmm. But would that not mean that the shipping calculation would have to be based on Category, not Value, for it to take note of what category is selected???

I will try it though once I set up a test site

It seems to me that going forward, dont ever use Value based shipping, as it restricts any product or product category specific differences in shipping. Which is a shame for a client that has always had this set up to use value

[leehack]

No mate, because within your zones, you can add any class (lets say free shipping) and then on that class choose the 'basis' for how it charges. So for example:

UK
- Free shipping
-- Basis of category with £0.00 against that category

Then if someone chooses UK and that product, it should pick up the category based shipping in the UK zone.

You can have different combinations within zones.

I've never done this btw, i could be talking total crap, it sounds ok though.

[grant]

Ahhhh - Gotcha - after a fervent bout of clicking about I think I have it...

Will try and explain to client and get him to test ...

Cheers Lee

[grant]

Heehee, hokay, playing with this on a test site now - it now seems to have the free option available for every product - and the paid for option available for the free shipping item.

ie, the normal shipping charge AND the free option is available for every product.....

It does not seem to differentiate the shipping category selection on a product level....

[leehack]

Check the category you have against the mass of products and that against the free item. i'd suggest that you have perhaps adjusted the 'standard' category to be your free category and in turn all products now inherit that by default. I am just guessing though, sounds like all products are now set for category based, i assume that is by the default setting.

[grant]

Hi Lee,

Thanks for sticking with me with this

All other products are in the Default category.

I have one product that I have selected the Free Shipping category

That is all there is that is set on a product basis.

So, it must be something I have done wrong in the Business settings / Shipping and handling.

You can select the Basis of the Shipping for each class. All of the existing classes are set to Value

The Free shipping class is set to Category, and the Free Shipping category selected. But it seems to also have the Default there as well - cant get rid of that it seems...

Have a look at the screenshot for a better idea.

Hmmmmmm

[leehack]

So your free shipping category is offered on all purchases, not just when the individual product is purchased. What happens if you add a non free product and try to select the free shipping, will it allow it through the cart?

If so, it would appear that category based is offered if it is included in the zone, not by the product itself, which seems a bit backward.

Try putting a silly shipping cost in against standard category and leave the free as £0, rename the free shipping to standard shipping and just see what happens in the cart. Does that then move the free shipping (renamed) to the bottom of the list of options and of course the costs makes it unselectable. That won't solve the issue, but it will be a step along the way to understand what is happening.

[grant]

Hi Lee,

Hokay, in Business Settings.
I have changed the Default Category from 0.00 to 20.00 charge
I have renamed the Free Shipping Category to Standard Shipping.

And done an upload.
Now I get the following

If I order a normal product, I get the existing delivery based on value - AND - a second option in the class of service shipping drop down called Standard Shipping for £20.00

If I order the single product I want free shipping I get the first shipping option being the normal shipping charge based on value - AND - free shipping at £0.00

[leehack]

It looks as though SD offers the category shipping in the zone even when a product not attached to that category is ordered. That's a real pain and probably going to scupper your chances then. That's a bit of a mess SD, you've got that part designed wrong IMO. Surely as with zones and classes, it should offer what is assigned to that product, not some global inclusion.

Can you clarify what value based shipping you have in place (any tiers for example), how many products you have in total and if there are any weights logged against any products. I may have a workaround for you to easily switch you over.

[grant]

Hi Lee,

OK - no weights entered for any product.

6 shipping zones - being the regions of the UK
In each there are 1 or 2 classes - being delivery rate (usual or Saturday) with a set cost per order and free over a certain order value.

Anything weight based - which means we can select the "Exclude from shipping" option would mean going through and entering a weight to every product ~1000

I suppose you could set it up weight based, with the current rules set for 0 weight - and then have the free shipping product being 10kg with 10kg being free shipping ??

This software would be so much easier if the Exclude from Shipping did what it said on the tin.

[leehack]

Oh man wish i'd known that before, you have a dead simple switch over. On the first screen of the shipping settings, you have a default weight, by putting something in there, every product where you HAVE NOT added a weight, inherits that default setting. 0.25 is a typical weight added here. You then on products you want to treat different put in manually large weight such as 10kg, you can then have tiers catering for the weights.

You won't need to worry about the free shipping products though as the 'exclude' button will now work.

You have a 'free over' box bottom right, just use that to set the free shipping on normal products.